Ulhasnagar, Sindhi Refugee Camp

[Gul Agha <agha@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

I remember my visit to Ulhasnagar a few years ago.  There were many
Sindhi scholars, poets and intellectuals living in the area and people
in the streets spoke Sindhi.  The town was originally the site of
military barracks from World War II, with no proper toilet facilities
and open sewers in which tens of thousands of Sindhi refugees were
dumped by the Indian government.

Many Sindhis have moved on and scattered as they have succeeded
financially but hundreds of thousands still live here in part because
it is a Sindhi area not far from Mumbai.

Unfortunately, it still had overflowing sewers and broken, narro roads
with huge potholes when I visited.  It had been three days since they
had seen fresh water.  The car of my gracious host got stuck in a open
sewer line..  The locals believed the area was neglected because it
was predominantly Sindhi and the Maharastra govt. didn't give it
priority.  Here is a story about Ulhas Nagar on ndtv.com about the
situation today:

Excerted from http://www.ndtv.com/

Ulhasnagar faces development crisis
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Miloni Bhatt

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Wednesday, September 29, 2004 (Ulhasnagar):

Ulhasnagar, an assembly constituency just kilometers away from the
state capital, Mumbai has hardly seen any development in the past
several years.

Apart from being a neglected region, the two major candidates from the
area are facing criminal charges.

Severe water crunch, roads dotted with potholes, frequent power cuts
and illegal constructions are some of the problems faced by the
residents of the area.

Suresh alias Pappu Kalani has been an MLA in the region for the last
15 years. But residents say the area is still backward as Kalani has
spent nine of these years in jail.

"I do not deny that I am facing criminal cases. But I am an
Independent candidate. Why has the BJP fielded someone facing criminal
charges?" said Kalani...

The three lakh residents in the area want development but their
dilemma is whoever they choose may end up doing more rounds of the
court than the constituency.